A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2018
LOCAL NEWS
Collins, Breiling vie for circuit court role
By PHIL WRIGHT
STAFF WRITER
Pendleton attorneys Rob-
ert “Rob” Collins and Michael
Breiling are vying for a seat
on the bench of the local cir-
cuit court.
The two are running for
Position 1 on the bench of the
Sixth Judicial District, which
encompasses Umatilla and
Morrow counties. The seat is
being vacated by Judge Lynn
Hampton, who has decided
not to seek re-election. Judges
Eva Temple and Christopher
Brauer are running unop-
posed for their seats.
Collins
Collins, who has 37 years
of practice, said he doesn’t
think there is anything more
important he could do with
the last six years of his career.
He said the adversarial ele-
ments of lawyering are less
interesting now than work-
ing to find the right outcome
under the law. He said the
Rob Collins
Michael Breiling
integrity of the justice system
depends on impartial judges,
and he wants to bring his
broad knowledge of the law
and sense of fairness to bear
in the circuit court.
“That’s the reason I’m
choosing to run,” he said.
Collins has worked as a
pro-tem city court judge for
five years and his practice
encompasses an array of civil
law, from litigation to custody
cases to real estate. Early in
his career he served as the lead
clerk for a Chicago firm that
handled criminal appeals. He
often prepared those appeals,
he said, and assisted the attor-
ney who argued the case in
court. The work helped him
acquire a “fairly broad knowl-
edge of criminal law,” he said.
Collins returned to Pend-
leton after graduating law
school in 1981 and joined his
father Robert Collins Sr., and
his brother, Michael Collins,
in the family firm, which the
two sons continue. His father
saw the law as a way to con-
tribute to the community, Col-
lins said, and he follows suit.
He has donated legal services
to local nonprofits, serves
on several local boards and
is in his eighth and last year
on the board of directors for
the Pendleton Round-Up
Association.
Collins also said he has a
deep interest in the rebirth of
drug court. He and his wife
have three children, all grown
and successful, he said, but
one son struggled with drug
addiction and is now 15
years sober. Collins said he
observed some sessions of the
old drug court and attended
one of the graduations.
Breiling
Breiling, 47, filed to run on
Oct. 6 2017 according to the
state’s election website. The
term for circuit court judges is
six years.
“We’re going to need a
Voters will decide whether to fund
OSU Extension Service District
HERMISTON HERALD
While voters have some tough
choices between candidates during
the May 15 election, they will also
have to decide whether to throw
their support behind a new taxing
district that would provide a steady
source of funding for 4-H, agricul-
tural research and education.
Umatilla County and Morrow
County voters are each being pre-
sented with a separate measure for
a district in their own county that
would fund support staff and oper-
ations for the Oregon State Uni-
versity Extension Service. In each
case, the district would add 33 cents
per $1,000 assessed value to home-
owners’ property taxes. In Umatilla
County, the tax would yield about
$1.7 million, and in Morrow, about
$700,000.
The money raised would help
fund the Hermiston Agricultural
Research and Education Center in
Hermiston and other area exten-
sion services, including 4-H pro-
grams, after-school education pro-
grams, Master Gardeners, health
fairs, agricultural research and cap-
ital improvements. During a recent
tour of HAREC that director Phil
Hamm gave Rep. Greg Walden and
other government officials, Hamm
said that while growers in the area
are very generous about giving to
new buildings and equipment, it is
always harder to raise money for
day-to-day operations than an excit-
ing new project.
The district in each county would
be overseen by that county’s board
of commissioners. Umatilla County
gave $321,090 this budget year to
the Oregon State University Exten-
sion Service, and commissioner
Larry Givens told the East Orego-
nian that the county would be able
to contribute less if Umatilla County
voters passed the district, although
the county may still contribute some
funds.
The 33 cents per $1,000 equals
about $49.50 on a $150,000 home,
but some taxpayers in compressed
areas like Hermiston will not see
an increase to their bill. Instead, the
city and other taxing districts would
receive less money. Taxpayers can
find their own tax code area on their
property tax statement, then go to
the county website and access the
tax rates for everything in their code
area if they want to figure out how
the new district might affect their
own taxes. The tax rates are avail-
able at www.co.umatilla.or.us/at/
index.html.
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new judge,” Breiling told
the East Oregonian at the
time. “It is important that the
judge be well versed in differ-
ent areas of the law, and have
deep experience in the areas
of law the court is most likely
to consider.
“I think I’m the best per-
son for the job.”
Breiling began his legal
career 22 years ago in the
Portland area and has been in
Pendleton 18 years. He and
his wife, Heidi Van Kirk, have
their own law firm in Pendle-
ton and have raised a son and
daughter.
Breiling is an aggres-
sive defense lawyer but said
his legal background covers
more. He said he has done
“every kind of criminal case,
from murder to barking dogs,
and every kind of family case
you can imagine.”
He said most people have
one interaction with the jus-
tice system, which proba-
bly means some kind of cri-
sis brought them to court. The
experience should be as posi-
tive as it can be, he said. Those
murder and barking dog cases
of years before, he recalled,
came back-to-back and taught
him a valuable lesson.
“Every person who shows
up to the court, their case is
the most important case there
is,” Breiling said in 2017. “I
think that’s something a judge
really needs to remember.”
Winning would mean
leaving the firm of Breiling &
Van Kirk and the job he loves,
he said, for a new challenge.
If he wins, he said, the firm
would continue with another
lawyer taking over his end of
the practice.
Collins and Breiling will
have a chance to sway voters
at the Boardman Chamber of
Commerce forum on Wednes-
day at 7 p.m. at the Port of
Morrow Riverfront Center, 2
Marine Drive in Boardman,
and a Pendleton Chamber of
Commerce candidate forum
Thursday at Pendleton High
School at 6:30 p.m.
Three Republicans lead
GOP pack for governor
HERMISTON HERALD
In the race to unseat Ore-
gon’s Gov. Kate Brown, a
Democrat seeking her first
full term in the office, three
Republicans have risen to
the front of the pack.
Registered Republicans
will cast a vote in May to
decide among 10 candidates
who will enter the general
election in November, while
Democrats will select either
Kate Brown or one of two
lesser-known challengers.
Knute Buehler, an ortho-
pedic surgeon who was first
elected to the Oregon House
of Representatives in 2014,
has been long considered a
potential candidate and has
the most campaign funding
on the Republican side with
a little over $1.5 million.
He’s raised and spent about
$850,000 this year alone.
Greg Wooldridge, a for-
mer commander of the Blue
Angels who now lives in
the Portland area and trains
companies to achieve better
performance, has never held
political office but served as
a delegate to the National
Republican Convention.
Sam Carpenter has fash-
ioned a “Make Oregon
Great Again” campaign as
his ticket to the general elec-
tion, though he has finished
behind both Buehler and
Wooldridge in most poll-
ing. He is CEO of Centratel
national telephone answer-
ing service and is the author
of two books on business
management. He has twice
run for U.S. Senate but has
never held public office.